By Don M. Ventura
Nonplayer #1
Image Comics
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Nonplayer is strikingly beautiful from cover to cover. Artist/writer Nate Simpson has delivered a new piece of work that deserves to be soaked in slowly as each panel is a testament to his skill.
You might wonder where the credits are on the book. There aren’t any. Simpson handles everything down to the lettering on this imaginative piece of obvious labor and the results are impressive for sure. To say that the artwork is superior to the story is not to demean his abilities as a writer, it’s a testament to his capacity to deliver one gorgeous page after the next.
Nonplayer is the story of Dana, who prefers the full-immersion multiplayer online game “Warriors of Jarvath” to real life. There she’s a warrior with a flying cat-thing. Dana and her elf friend attack royalty and about a thousand soldiers before things appear to go glitchy in the machine. Simpson plays up his strengths during this fantastic sequence. While I have an aversion to role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons and the like, I found my prejudices did not get in the way of enjoying the book.
I’ll be interested to see more from Simpson in terms of dialogue because the book is somewhat sparse in terms of it, but I liked what I read. When Dana asks her mom not to touch her stuff, her mother replies, “Funny how you make an exception when it comes to your dirty laundry”. It’s clever and sincere exchanges like this that I appreciate in good dialogue.
Ultimate Captain America #4
Marvel Comics
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It gets boring watching superheroes just use there dumb fists to punch one another. Thank you Jason Aaron for remembering that hammers could do a lot worse damage than knuckles.
I’m not sure from where Aaron draws his inspiration, but he has brought a host of forms of punishment to this series. First Cap bites a rattlesnake in half to spit the venom in his captor’s eyes, then bites the guy’s ear off, and then the adversaries grab their hammers and start going at each other.
And I enjoyed it. Aaron presents his two Captain Americas—one good (I won’t quantify that) and one bad—as a couple of street fighters who are going to use their fists to take the other one down. What results is one nasty as hell brawl. Again, I enjoyed it for all of the visceral reasons I enjoy horror films.
Now that Ron Garney is done with this four-issue mini, let’s put him on an ongoing. His work on this Ultimate Captain America has been astonishing. Check out the final blow by Cap to Frank Simpson’s jaw. That’s a blow that Simpson will remember until his dying day.
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #5
Marvel Comics
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Okay, this book has a formula. Tell an interesting story with strong dialogue and then end with an “Oh my God!” final page.
This bi-monthly series might as well be titled “Scarlet Witch: Rebirth” because that is the road I feel we are going down. And I’m fine with that. I was never a fan of turning a childhood favorite character into one of the Marvel U’s tragic villains.
At the end of the last issue Iron Lad reappeared after a long absence from the Young Avengers. Reminding us that these are indeed just kids, the returned hero’s good intentions may have unintentionally screwed up the current Marvel timeline.
I have enjoyed Heinberg’s work with the character’s he’s created since he first introduced them six years ago. The writer is telling an exciting story while adding enough to the mix to make your head spin, but the story remains fun without being cluttered.
Jimmy Cheung’s art is simply spectacular. There is an amazing two page spread that includes all most of the Avengers and Young Avengers with an extremely cool looking Iron Lad in the middle of it all. I’m happy to wait two months for more pages like this.
Uncanny X-Men #534.1
Marvel Comics
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Kate Kildare is faced with two almost impossible tasks: 1) get the public to embrace a character that most of the world fears and hates, and 2) get that character to accept embracing.
Magneto is at the center of another of Marvel’s successful “.01” issues. New series writer Keiron Gillen concentrates on the Master of Magnetism’s desire to be himself as Kildare tries to convince him that he needs a serious make-over for his public persona. Meanwhile the X-Men are following a team of men disguised as A.I.M. Agents (this outfit is really making a resurgence) who are threatening to use tech that will cause a catastrophic earthquake in California.
Kildare makes a lot of good points in terms of getting Magneto to work on the public’s perception of him, but Magneto stands firm in his belief that he will not be anything other than what he is—take it or leave it. In the end he’s able to change opinion on his terms. Any other approach would have probably been a mistake and would have felt out of character.
The X-Men also have plenty of great moments in this issue. They take on the faux-A.I.M. agents with ease and Namor has the best, and most arrogant, line in the issue: “Your arrogance sickens me, beekeeper. Only Namor has the ability to make the Earth move!”
Blue Estate #1
Image Comics
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After finishing Blue Estate #1, it was clear that writers Viktor Kalvachev and Kosta Yanev are setting the stage for a sprawling modern crime tale. And everyone involved seems to be having a good time.
Every few pages the reader is introduced to a larger than life character—each seemingly less likable than the next. At its center is the protagonist of Blue Estate, Roy Devine, Jr. There are Russian and Italian mobsters, a femme fatale B-movie actress and her Steven Segal-inspired louse of a husband, and brief but constant homages to Law & Order. We’re not treated to a complete story here. This is just the set up while we get glimpses of what crimes are actually taking place.
The artwork on this book is exciting and befitting of the frenetic tone of the story. Kalvachev is joined by artists Toby Cypress, Nathan Fox and Robert Valley. While each of the artists have their own style, the mix of these styles works together well.
While Blue Estate does not end with a particularly strong hook, there is plenty here to get you wanting to see where the story is going to go next. And damn, that is one nice looking cover.
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